July 2009
What Were They Thinking? →
Everyone should have a hobby. Mine is collecting names of businesses that don’t make sense. Below are some real examples:
1. Icarus air Travel. Icarus only had one flight and it ended badly.
2. The Abelard School, a private academy. Abelard was best known for sleeping with a student.
3. Gandhi’s Fine Indian Cuisine. Gandhi was not a known to be a hearty eater or gourmand.
4. Mecca Jeans. Is...
“But the modern right wing, as Daniel Bell has put it, feels dispossessed:...”
– The Paranoid Style in American Politics
Three Good Reasons To Liquidate Our Empire →
However ambitious President Barack Obama’s domestic plans, one unacknowledged issue has the potential to destroy any reform efforts he might launch. Think of it as the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room: our longstanding reliance on imperialism and militarism in our relations with other countries and the vast, potentially ruinous global empire of bases that goes with it. The failure...
“Morality doesn’t come from religion. Healthy human children come into the world...”
– Valerie Tarico
World's first computer may be even older than... →
From Swiss Army knives to iPhones, it seems we just love fancy gadgets with as many different functions as possible. And judging from the ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism, the desire to impress with the latest multipurpose must-have item goes back at least 2000 years. This mysterious box of tricks was a portable clockwork computer, dating from the first or second century BC. Operated by...
“I have information about things that our government has lied to us about. I...”
– Sibel Edmonds
Meanwhile, Back In The Jungle →
“Everyone in the world knows that Jesus and his teachings were non-violent except...”
– Gandhi
“Microsoft has lost all but a sliver of this entire market. People who love...”
– Daring Fireball
The greatest movies ever made →
All lists of the “greatest” movies are propaganda. They have no deeper significance. It is useless to debate them. Even more useless to quarrel with their ordering of titles: Why is this film #11 and that one only #31? The most interesting lists are those by one person: What are Scorsese’s favorites, or Herzog’s? The least interesting are those by large-scale voting, for...
“People love to chalk up posts like this to “whiny iPhone developers”. Well, I’m...”
– stevenf.com
“Some critics attack single-payer, arguing that under such a program, government...”
– Obama’s Doctor Speaks Out for Single-Payer Healthcare Reform
“Although I actively participate in a network of blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, I...”
– Emergent Village
The Huffington Post is crazy about your health →
The Huffington Post’s poor science raises the question of what are the ethics of heath and medical writing and blogging? I posed the question to Dr. Robert Lamberts, a primary care physician, who writes the well-respected blog Musings of a Distractible Mind. When I asked him about the rules (formal or informal) of science blogging, he told me that health writers and bloggers expect one...
The lessons of 1979-82 →
“There has to be a reason that the US, of all the industrialized nations, the...”
– Hullabaloo
“…if you don’t like the idea of “thought crimes,” then are you...”
– DarkStar Spouts Off
Remembering History’s Evils →
One of the oldest continuously lived in pueblos in America is the Taos Pueblo. In 1847, after the U.S. took New Mexico, local Indians and Hispanics were fearful that the U.S. wouldn’t honor their ownership of the land and so staged a rebellion against the U.S. governor in Taos. The governor ended up dead and the U.S. Army moved quickly to quash the revolt. (the Indians actually claim that they...
Thursday, Bloody Thursday in Honduras →
“Dallas and Houston were major corporate centers for decades. Unlike most...”
– Rogue Columnist
“Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation...”
– Michael Pollan
Swedish lesbians suck sperm banks dry →
Sweden’s fertility clinics are racking up a serious backlog of people waiting for artificial insemination, due in part to a “spike” in demand from lesbian couples for vital supplies of man juice.
“Indeed, the notion that government and “private” corporations ought to work...”
– The Death of Libertarianism? Part 4
Driver blames car crash on snakes in pants pocket →
“We live in a corporate state. We live in a state that no longer responds to the...”
– Chris Hedges
Homeless Man Builds $5 Million Website →
The website was online on August 1st, 2008, and in 2 months Hladyak made enough money to quit his security job and focus on the online business. He made enough money to leave the street and rent a room. In July 2009, Hladyak had increased the time he needs to reach the $5mln mark from 1 to 5 years. So far, he made over $80,000 with makemeshare.com, the amount one can conclude from the number and...
“Imagine it is 1965. You’ve seen the curves Gordon Moore discovered. What...”
– The Technium
Crowdsourced 3D City →
If a million monkeys typing can write Hamlet, can a million tourists’ snapshots map out a 3D picture of Rome?
The answer is yes. And Venice, too.
There are more than 2 million photos on Flickr tagged with Rome. They capture almost every nook and cranny, every column and doorway, of the old city. If you had a lot of computer power, and the right smart software, you could take these 2...
“Our kitchens and other eating places more and more resemble filling stations, as...”
– Wendell Berry
Harry and Louise's Deadly Embrace →
A New York Times/CBS News poll shows that a majority of Americans support a government-run, universal health care system. A survey of U.S. doctors reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that 59 percent favor a Medicare for All system of national health insurance.
Honduras and the Supreme Court →
Two problems with this. First, the Supreme Court did not order the army to oust Zelaya. They only ordered his detention, but neither his exile nor removal from office. Second, since the Supreme Court never ruled that Zelaya should be removed from office (if there is a Supreme Court document I have missed, let me know) then I am not sure what it needs to decide. Nowhere did they indicate that...
Desperate state may sell Capitol buildings, others →
State properties now being considered for sale and leaseback include the House and Senate buildings, the Phoenix and Tucson headquarters of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the State Hospital and the state fairgrounds, according to a document obtained by The Arizona Republic. Some prison facilities also are under consideration.
“There are only two ways of spreading light–to be the candle or the mirror that...”
– Edith Wharton
2 tags
Minimum Wage Increases are Good
In a similar vein to the befuddlement in this post on how Christians could champion a for-profit health industry tilted to the wealthy and powerful, in stark constrast to biblical edicts of Jesus, I puzzle over conservative Christian opposition to minimum wage law. Today, I listened to a Christian talk radio host lambast the recent raise of U.S. minimum wage to $7.25 per hour. The decrying of...
“They don’t think about the the girl in China who stitched their new jeans...”
– To Them, The Magic of Lower Prices Just Happens
“As an economist, I find it astonishing that members of my profession can believe...”
– Economic fundamentalism and the minimum wage
“Conservatives won this round in the culture wars, not merely because most of the...”
– Thomas Frank
Here's the Meat of the Problem →
According to a 2006 United Nations report, livestock accounts for 18 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Some of meat’s contribution to climate change is intuitive. It’s more energy efficient to grow grain and feed it to people than it is to grow grain and turn it into feed that we give to calves until they become adults that we then slaughter to feed to people. Some of...
“Yahoo committed seppuku today. The once proud warrior of the internet space laid...”
– Jason Calacanis
“…McArdle knows nothing of economics or political economy, beyond that minimum of...”
– Why Andrew Sullivan is right about Megan McArdle, but not in the way he thinks
“The idea that private markets are the most innovative is a complete myth. Most...”
– TheDailyBanter.com